French connection: 8 top covetable croissants
For this week’s survey we looked for the best croissant which includes plain, pain au chocolat or any other type which took our fancy when we saw them displayed.
We tried several from bakers and supermarkets and gave our top marks for tasty, light, evenly layered pastry. If they were flavoured with chocolate or almond we looked for top quality ingredients and lightness. All of the pre-wrapped samples had a long list of ingredients and were far too sweet, doughy, soft and cake-like to make our Top 8.
We didn’t look at frozen croissants or ready-to-bake types. We heated all samples at 150C for four minutes. Microwaving does not do pastry, especially flaky or puff, any justice.
In France where the croissant originated, you need to ask for a ‘croissant au beurre’ to be sure of getting the real thing – a delicious sweet pastry laminated with butter.
They may be calorific at 380 for a small, plain one, more for the flavoured, so keep them as a treat and buy the best.
Bon appetit!
Beautifully even layers in the decent sized plain croissant (€1.30), pain au chocolat (€2) (with delicious Valrhona chocolate) and pain au raisin (€1.30) were light and buttery and the favourite of tasters for being closest to what they have bought in the best French patisseries.
Available in Cork at Bradleys, On the Pig’s Back, Ballintemple Store, Vicky’s Sunday’s Well, O’Keeffe’s St Lukes; Wilton, Mahon and Midleton markets.
9.5
Our favourite of all the almond versions, this one (€1.95) was topped with sliced almonds. Rum syrup and almond paste inside was lightened with pastry cream which made it a lot lighter than other samples which didn’t make the Top 8. The plain croissant (€1.35) was large, light and buttery as was the pain au chocolat (€1.75). All were large enough to be shared. At English Market, Cork and Carrigaline, Co Cork.
9
Three types here were pain au chocolat (€1.39), with Belgian Twist, a combination of chocolate with a little almond paste (€1.73), our favourite. Less successful was the marzipan almond croissant which had too strong a taste of almond essence. The croissants come into the shop frozen and are baked in-house. The pastry, while tasty, was not as light and buttery or even textured as others.
6.75
There were no plain croissants on our shopping day, but the decent sized pain au chocolat had plenty of quite good chocolate and was crisp and light. At Merchant’s Quay.
7.5
The plain croissant (70c) had a light, buttery texture while the pain au chocolat had almonds on top and just enough chocolate not to be too heavy. There were not as many layers as hoped and they were not as light as we had expected from their appetising appearance. Nevertheless, they were enjoyed by tasters. Baked in-house at Quish’s, Ballincollig, Co Cork. See SuperValu website for other in-house bakeries.
7.25
Of the two offerings here, the plain croissant (49c) was the best. The chocolate and hazelnut variety (69c) tasted of Nutella and had a fatty mouth feel. Both were light and flaky, though unevenly textured. Baked in house in the Ballincollig store, fair enough value.
7
All tasters loved all three varieties. The almond version (€2) with its light creamy layer of almond paste inside and flaked almonds on top of light pastry came out best of this selection, and there was lots of chocolate in the decent sized pain au chocolat (€1.50). The plain one (€1.20), like the others was light and flaky. At English Market, Cork.
8.5
There are quite a few offerings in this supermarket with some bags of additive-filled brands, but their in-house bakery had a good value box of four plain croissants for €2. While the texture was uneven with quite large gaps, the jumbo plain butter croissants for 89c had light, flaky pastry. The pain au chocolat (54c) was topped with sprinkles of more (not great quality) chocolate. Fair price.
7.25
